COVINGTON, Ga. – The Covington Police Department graduated its eighth Citizen’s Police Academy class Monday night during the Covington City Council meeting, pushing the total participation of the class to more than 200 citizens.

Johnathan Paschal said this most recent class was the best class so far.

The six-week course is done twice a year and the next class will take place in the spring of 2018, Lt. Wendell Wagstaff, coordinator of the class, said.

“It’s one of the most valuable classes – like I said I was I was a fulltime minister for 25 years – and this was one of the most educational classes I’ve ever been through in my life,” Doug Davidson, participant, said. “This gave me an opportunity to learn about the county and the town that we live in.”

Davidson encouraged anyone who has not completed the class to sign up.

Jimmie Suber, participant, said he signed up because his wife told him to, but he ended up gaining a lot out of the class.

“I was voluntold that I was going to do this by my wife, Kathy,” he said. “I’ll be honest, when she said she wanted to come she said, ‘Baby, we’re going to get to shoot the police guns.’ To me, I wasn’t excited about that, I’m ex-military.

“I will say I am so glad that she told me that. This has been so enlightening. I think you guys are doing a disservice to the rest of America because this, to me, you need to help Lt. Wagstaff and the rest of the police department make the rest of America aware of what you’re doing because, believe me, this is very impactful.”

Fleeta Baggett said she signed up for the class because the CPD officers are her friends and neighbors.

“I live one block from this police station; I walk my dog at least six times a day and I see them day-in and day-out,” she said. “It kind of struck me in the last few months, that most of these fellas that I’m so close with were retiring and I thought that I owed it to them to really know what was going on. I thought I knew and much to my surprise I didn’t know nearly what I thought I knew.”

Graduates include: Fleeta Baggett, Sheena Broughton, Kiara Broughton, Amy Carter, Brenda Davidson, Doug Davidson, Kayla Delecki, Taylor Freeman, Adam Hammonds, Debra Hammonds, Wendy Jacques, Shelly Jones, Kenneth Lawson, Claudia Norman, Jon Paschal, Martin Perez, Stephanie Schaberg, Adrien Smith, Kathy Suber, Jimmie Suber and Trey Willard.